BOOKS & PUBLICATIONS

REVERBERATIONS FROM FUKUSHIMA:
50 JAPANESE POETS SPEAK OUT — SECOND EDITION

(PARKDALE PRESS, 2021)

The second edition of this prize-winning anthology takes stock of the current situation in Fukushima ten years after the disaster in contributions by Nobel Peace Prize nominee Dr. Helen Caldicott, Fairewinds Energy Education founder Maggie Gundersen, and professor emerita Dr. Norma Field. Poems by 50 Japanese poets illustrate the disaster from a personal perspective. Truly an eye-opening read.

“Poetry speaks the language of the heart, and this is the language of peace and justice. One cannot read these poems without feeling the very real threat posed by the so-called “peaceful” uses of nuclear power.”

~ David Krieger, President Emeritus, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation

NEW RELEASE
LIFE REVISED
A HYBRID MEMOIR BY LEAH STENSON

(CIRQUE PRESS, 2020)

This hybrid montage of poetry, prose and images takes us on a journey from personal tragedy to self-awareness and healing, offering insight into the resilience of the human spirit.

“…a moving and courageous book….”
~ Lex Runciman

“…elegant prose and heartfelt poetry… fresh and vital to the last page.”
~ John Sibley Williams

Available at Amazon

EVERYWHERE I FIND MYSELF

(TURNNG POINT BOOKS 2017)

This full-length collection of narrative poetry draws from a deep well of autobiographical and cross-cultural experience—a wide-ranging geographic and emotional journey of the heart.

“Eternity can be heard in the stir of the breeze, in the vineyards, the whisper of prayer,” the poet writes in Everywhere I Find Myself. The poems explore love, memory and deep loss with equal verve. With an artist’s sharp eye for detail and a philosophical world view Leah Stenson is a savvy traveler. Her wry wit, compassionate heart and spirit infuse this vivid, engaging collection.”

~ Marilyn Stablein, author of Climate of Extremes, Splitting Hard Ground, and Sleeping in Caves

Available at Turning Point Books, Amazon and Barnes & Noble

THE TURQUOISE BEE
AND OTHER LOVE POEMS

(FINISHING LINE PRESS, 2014)

This chapbook celebrates love—physical and metaphysical—from various angles. At times sexy, witty, melancholic and romantic, readers will find a poem to satisfy every mood.

“It’s refreshing to see a woman writing so freely and openly about love and about the physical body during romances. The Turquoise Bee is full of flowers and night-dancing, of time and loss and being enriched by experience. I cherish these poems. Stenson’s eye and concern of the intimate other is to be admired.”

~ Carl Adamshick, 2010 Winner of the Walt Whitman Award and 2012 Winner of the Oregon Book Award

Available at Finishing Line Press

REVERBERATIONS FROM FUKUSHIMA:
50 JAPANESE POETS SPEAK OUT — FIRST EDITION

(INKWATER PRESS, 2014)

This award-winning bilingual anthology of poems about the first nuclear disaster of the 21st Century presents the voices of 50 Japanese poets, including poems by anti-nuclear activist poets Jotaro Wakamatsu and Hisao Suzuki, as well as commentary and essays by David Krieger of Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and Francesca Giovannini, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

“Here, finally reaching our shore, the first wave of poems out of Fukushima: disaster in the first-person, no longer paraphrased, managed, or supposed. These are the voices that bring the experience closer than journalism ever could, that ask us to plant ourselves in the path of contamination, fear, betrayal. Our losses become all too real…”

~ Kathleen Flenniken, author of Plume

Available at Inkwater Books, Amazon and Barnes & Noble

ALIVE AT THE CENTER: CONTEMPORARY POEMS FROM THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST

(OOLIGAN PRESS, 2013)

This anthology, compiled by a team of nine regional editors from the poetry communities in Portland, Seattle and Vancouver BC, brings together some of the Pacific Northwest’s best-known poets. Available in a single volume or separate volumes for each city.

“Tart, sharp, unexpected, funny, sidelong, blunt, and gentle, with passages and line of startling power and pleasure. Personally, I would buy this in a trice for the sheer quality.”

~ Brian Doyle, author of Mink River

Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

HEAVENLY BODY

(FINISHING LINE PRESS, 2011)

The seemingly straightforward poems in this debut chapbook reveal deep truths about the nature of relationships and our connection to people and places.

“The poems in Heavenly Body revolve around a worldly woman who burns very brightly. Undercutting the predictable sighs of travel – a Mexican market, Southampton Beach, a sunset cruise snd cherry blossoms in Japan – Leah Stenson thrills to the quote “thwack of a meat clever,” worries over a daughter bobbing on a “dark rising swell,” gets lost “in a blur of Blue Hawaiis” and blossoms “against the night wind.” I really trust the life in these poems. I really love the joy.”

~ Henry Hughes, Harvard Review

Available at Finishing Line Press

PUBLICATIONS

Leah’s work spans a wide range of genres, including book reviews, magazine articles, poetry and essays. Her poetry has been translated into Japanese and is anthologized in Japanese and English publications.

JOURNALS & MAGAZINES

Assisi

Blue Moon

Cirque

Cloudbank

Colere

Eunoia Review

Ghost Town Poetry

Gorge Literary Journal

Illya’s Honey

Kosmos

Lalitamba

Just Now

Multnomah Art Center Postbox

Northwest Women’s Journal

Oregon Literary Review

Portland Alliance

Psaltery & Lyre

Red Poppy Review

Red River Review

River Poets Journal

San Diego Review

Sacred Cow

Sunset Liminal

The Oregonian

The Oregonian SW Weekly

Thresholds

Tiger’s Eye

Tipton Poetry Journal

Unique Ink

Verseweavers

VoiceCatcher

Vox Poetica

Word Salad

POETRY ANTHOLOGIES

Adanna’s Love Poetry Anthology

Alive at the Center: Contemporary Poems from the Pacific Northwest

Classifieds: An Anthology of Prose Poems

Fault Lines

Just Now: 20 New Portland Poets

“Heiwa wo Towa” in Kokoro ni Kizamu: 305 Shijin Shu (Engraving Peace in Our Hearts: An Anthology of 305 Poets)

Home Address: Poems Celebrating Lake Oswego’s Centennial

Motionless from the Iron Bridge: A Northwest Anthology of Bridge Poems

No Box Can Hold: A Modern Study of Identity and Self-discovery

/pãn| dé| mïk/ 2020: An Anthology of Pandemic Poems by OPA

Plein Air Anthologies (2013, 2014, 2015) | Columbia Center for the Arts

Raising Our Voices: Anthology of Oregon Poets Against the War

Song of Ourselves

INTERVIEWS & BOOK REVIEWS

“An Interview with Leah Stenson.” Interview by Stephen Krzyzanowski, Sunset Liminal Press.

“On the First Nuclear Disaster of the 21st Century—Poets Sing the Body Nuclear.” Book review and interview by Paul Haeder. Cirque, Vol. 10, No.2, pp.39-46.

Reverberations from Fukushima: 50 Japanese Poets Speak Out, review by Ruthy Kanagy, for Oregon Poetry Association.

Reverberations from Fukushima: 50 Japanese Poets Speak Out, review by Maggie Gundersen, for Fairewinds Energy Education.